1.6Gbit connection new smart hub (white, small box) sporadic issues? DNS MITM?

[allamavortex]

Hello all,

So I recently changed my service from 900mbit to 1.6Gbit and that involved a change of router and obviously the OR ONT on the wall.

Ever since having it installed there seems to be an issue with (most likely DNS issues). Whatever is loaded/playing/game continue to work, but I have spells where NO further DNS requests seem to make it through.

I totally forgot to nslookup during one of these issues, but I will the next time it happens (it's pretty frequent and annoying). I can ping 8.8.8.8 (google) whilst being unable to load any webpages on any device/browser. Thus removing the possibility of it being localised to a single machine/device as some were using the router, some were set to DNS over HTTPS and some were using Google's 8.8.8.8 etc. 

It is very much like the router is playing the MITM and intercepting the requests and then slowly, or failing to process these requests at all for a period of time which ranges up to about 45 seconds.

As I said, cached requests, or those already in process are fine, but even something as trivial as trying to watch a YT video is met with 45 seconds of nothing, totally unable to look up ANY address, but established connections and new connections not requiring DNS all work fine.

I'm not really one for conspiracies but I really feel like this new router is intercepting (MITM), attempting to do something with, and failing the DNS requests. This behaviour is only been present since getting the new Smart Hub (the tall, thing white one).

I did a quick google and it seems I'm not alone with this - is anyone else noticing this type of behavior?

Mixture of wired and wireless devices, same behaviour.

[jasonpartington]

Was meant to have a callback today which never came through, since swapping to my old asus router everything has been fine, no issues whatsoever.

Personally if this becomes a permanent issue i think the logical solution is to offer customers another router option or a slight credit back every month.

This definitely seems to be an issue with new tcp/udp connections, as I've found once connected it stays connected.

I think most customers who aren't aware of the issue probably wont notice, as most people use phones for browsing and stream or downloading everything else.

My friend had the issue but didnt notice until i pointed it out to him, he then noticed the wifi disconnecting on his phone, but said he wouldn't have realised as his mobile signal obviously kicked in, which is probably the case for most people.

This i think is one of the biggest issues ive seem or been involved in with isp hardware.

[jasonpartington]

From my experience my gut feeling is this has something to do with ee server side, 

I think it has something to do with the way ee connects directly with the router, as i received a replacement router which worked for 24 hours then the issue started again, even though the router hadn't updated its firmware.

This 100% is a router/firmware/server issue and not a customer created problem i feel.

[TraderTravel]

@jasonpartington I am not sure I agree that this is a PPoE issue (which is what you are intimating). Other users have switched to 3rd party equiptment and reported back to this very thread they are not experiencing the issue. I feel fairly certain this is something to do with the software stack running on the EE router itself. The loss of connection comes and goes, and as discussed by a few of us, DNS anyhow feels fairly 'slow', especially if compared to running your own DNS/DHCP server (and disabling the EE router's DHCP capability).

This is one of the team responsible for firmware releases to resolve within EE. Whilst an ISP router is never going to win awards, it definitely should be more reliable than this. 🙂

[jasonpartington]

Yeah i dont think it's a PPoE issue as im using an asus router currently without a single issue and using the ee router as a doorstop temporarily 😂

What i mean is, could it be something to do with how the router talks to the ee server, for example how ee themselves can see all the connected devices on your home network or access the router.

The reason i say this, when on a call originally to an ee agent, i said to the woman look i can make the router crash, and proceeded to do it, she said it crashed on her system too.

But i fully agree although some of us have the option to use our own routers or afford an alternative, i think its fully reasonable to expect the isp hardware to give a stable experience.

[TraderTravel]

@jasonpartington 

The issue could be related to almost any module running within the router firmware, whether it be the service management modules for customer services to do their bit, through to the dns or dhcp server.

I am now running my own dns and dhcp server, but this does not totally resolve the issue. I still get a few random freezes throughout the day. It's definitely better now that I am running these services myself on another piece of kit, but it does not resolve the underlying issue.

[bobpullen]

@TraderTravel & @jasonpartington - are either of you able to try the Powershell script that @ryajohnst kindly provided here?

I've been able to run it for another day or so using a different Hub Pro at another location (also 1.6Gbps) and my findings are the same as before - no failures whatsoever!

[jasonpartington]

Yes i can plug the ee router back in and run the script for 24 hours, will be tomorrow when i get chance as currently got my asus router setup.

I also wanted to add ee did in fact call me back today and i missed the call, so will update on that once ive spoke to them.

[rainman2871]

Guys, the latest firmware version for the EE Smart Hub Pro, as of mid-2025, is r2.64.7-R-1303938-PROD-1. This version was reportedly released around the end of May or beginning of June, I think EE know now there is  ongoing issues as a lot of customers including myself has complained so for now if you do have a 3rd party compatible router use that, we all keep saying the same things with the issues just a guessing game theirs nothing that can be done at the moment  just  use  a 3rd party router for time being and see how this goes then check here for the update regarding  new firmware fix,  I know its wrong to use a different router due to EE issue they should supply  a different spec router to sort this, when I spoke to EE tech team this week he said it could take 1 month to 2 months to fix hopefully sooner for us all, I hope they do compensate all the customers who have been effected with this poor service

[JimM11]

@rainman2871 Was released Feb2025! Link to when way back 9th Feb 2025!

Solved: WiFi 7 Dropping Connections - The EE Community

Pro

FW: r2.49.5-R-1094775-PROD-1 and the gui is at App version 2.22.6. Looks like OOB
FW: r2.64.2-R-1210501-PROD-1 and the gui is at App version 2.34.2.
FW: r2.64.3-R-1213091-PROD-1 and the gui is at App version 2.34.2. 06/12/2024
FW: r2.64.5-R-1298597-PROD-1 and the gui is at App version 2.34.2. 04/02/2025
FW: r2.64.6-R-1303886-PROD-1 and the gui is at App version 2.34.2. Unknown not released in the wild.SW40J WiFi Extender?
FW: r2.64.7-R-1303938-PROD-1 and the gui is at App version 2.34.2. 07/02/2025

[rainman2871]

Hi Jim

That is a long time ago with out firmware upgrades 6 months doesn't seem right the info I'm getting this from is from EE .

This firmware was released in Feb Firmware version: r2.64.5-R-1298597-PROD-1 04/02/2025 App ver 2.34. 

as of mid-2025, is r2.64.7-R-1303938-PROD-1.